410 
HIRUNDINIM. 
May 22nd, 1833. — After eight this evening, which was very warm and the sky 
cloudless, swifts, as noisy as usual, were flying about in little parties of three or 
four : two of these parties would occasionally join, and continue together for a short 
time, screaming vociferously. Their evolutions with that accompaniment, have always 
seemed to me manifestations of pure enjoyment. When these parties were about to 
meet, and when just separating, their power of screaming was exerted to the utmost.* 
Evolutions, in which a much greater number of these birds participated, were wit- 
nessed on the 24th inst., the weather being similar to that on the 22nd. The 
state of the barometer and weather has been mentioned, that some idea may be 
formed whether or not the atmosphere could have been “highly electrical ” through- 
out the varied weather described, or indeed daily throughout that of any two months 
in this climate.f 
Swifts particularly delight in flying about the squares and 
large open spaces in towns. Lofty edifices, especially when in a 
state of dilapidation, are preferred by them for building in; but 
in the north of Ireland, where these do not often occur, they con- 
tent themselves with more humble dwellings. J In many of our 
northern towns (where swifts are as plentiful as in any country) 
they select as their domicile the eaves of the oldest houses, or those 
from which the fast encroaching spirit of improvement, has not 
yet banished the thatched roofs. On the 8th of July, 1833, I 
observed many of these birds flying under the eaves and clinging 
to the walls of occupied two-story houses of this kind, in the 
town of Antrim. Although they and the martins appeared an 
indiscriminate multitude when flying about the streets, their places 
of nidification were quite distinct, the martins building on the 
south, and the swifts confining themselves to the north side : on 
a house just opposite the chief abode of the latter, I reckoned 
* Mr. Macgillivray remarks, “ that the loudest and most frequent cries are heard 
when birds are evidently in active and successful pursuit.” At the times above 
alluded to, they certainly were not feeding. 
f Mr. Macgillivray, in his British Birds, vol. iii. pp. 619 and 622, enters fully 
into the subject of the swift’s screaming. His observations of 1837 very generally 
agree with mine, made a few years before. Dr. J. D. Marshall, in his memoir on 
the Statistics and Natural History of the island of Bathlin, where swifts are plentiful, 
states that the result of his observations is opposed to the views of White and Selby. 
He believes the loud screaming of these birds to be particularly induced by fine 
weather and an abundance of food. 
j; When on Barn’s Island, in Lough Neagh, in the month of June, 1833, I re- 
marked several of these birds flying in the vicinity of the ancient round tower, whose 
“ rents of min ” were most probably their breeding place. 
